Brazil sees fresh protests despite Rousseff’s speech

‘RHETORIC’:Protesters angry at the millions spent on soccer events were seemingly unswayed by the Brazilian president’s offer a ‘great pact’ to fix services and fight graft

AFP, BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil

The popular outrage, dubbed by some a “Tropical Spring” after the protest movements in the Arab world and echoing similar turmoil in Turkey this month, has come as a shock to outside observers.

Rousseff’s political mentor, former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, helped raise Brazil’s international profile and the World Cup was seen as a key milestone in its emergence as a global power.

However, the protesters say they feel left behind as they watch gleaming new stadiums spring up in cities paralyzed by traffic and clogged with aging trains and buses.